XRP ETF Race Is Officially On as Major Asset Managers Vie to Introduce the First Spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in the U.S.

Spot XRP ETFs are gaining significant traction in the U.S., with Cboe BZX Exchange filing 19b-4 filings on behalf of WisdomTree, Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary

Major asset managers are now vying to introduce the first spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. in the wake of Bitcoin and Ether’s approvals in 2024.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is now planning to launch options on its cash-settled ether (ETH) futures contracts on March 24, pending regulatory approval, the exchange announced on Thursday.

The new options will be available for trading during regular hours on the Cboe Options Exchange, according to a statement from CME. The exchange launched its cash-settled ether futures in February 2024.

The launch of ether options on CME comes amid increasing demand for derivatives linked to the second-largest cryptocurrency. In January, the exchange saw a record volume of 10,333 contracts in a single day for its ether futures.

Meanwhile, several asset managers are now looking to introduce the first spot XRP ETFs in the U.S.

Four separate filings were submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday by the Cboe BZX Exchange on behalf of WisdomTree, Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital. The filings are seeking approval for a rule change to list and trade spot XRP ETFs from the four asset managers.

The 19b-4 filings, if approved, would lead to the first XRP ETFs in the United States. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP still lacks explicit regulatory clarity as it remains entangled in a securities-related legal battle.

All four applicants cited the July 2023 SEC v. Ripple ruling — which found XRP is not a security — to support their argument that XRP does not satisfy the legal definition of a security.

Cboe “believes it is applying proper legal standards in making a good faith determination that XRP is not under these circumstances a security under federal law,” the filings said.

The ETF filings come amid an ongoing SEC appeal of the Ripple ruling to the Second Circuit, in which the securities watchdog looks to overturn a previous court’s decision that programmatic sales to retail investors did not qualify as investment contract offerings.

Despite lacking an established CME futures market — an important requirement that the SEC had sought during the approvals for Bitcoin and Ethereum — the applicants argue that alternative measures like on-chain analytics, price monitoring, and market structure analysis offer adequate protection against potential fraud and manipulation.

Bitwise was the first to file paperwork with the SEC for permission to launch its XRP ETF, submitting its S-1 registration statement in October 2024. Canary Capital closely followed Bitwise, submitting an S-1 form for its own XRP fund days later. 21Shares and WisdomTree have also made their XRP ETF plans official with SEC filings. And crypto giant Grayscale recently applied to convert its XRP Trust into a spot ETF on New York Stock Exchange subsidiary NYSE Arca.

XRP, the third-biggest virtual coin, has jumped by 6.4% over the last day after a mid-week dip. It’s still down 19.6% on the week after edging close to its long-held record high of $3.40 in mid-January.

XRP rose sharply on Wednesday after cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the listing of 15 XRP trading pairs on its platform, including XRP/TRY, XRP/GBP, and XRP/BRL. The move is part of Binance’s efforts to expand its services in Turkey, the U.K., and Brazil.

The addition of these new trading pairs on Binance comes after XRP began showing signs of recovery from a bearish trend that saw the coin lose nearly half of its value in the first half of 2025. After hitting a low of $1.60 in June 2025, XRP started to rally in the second half, reaching a high of $3.30 in December 2025.

Now, as XRP attempts to break above the $3 mark once again, some analysts are predicting a potential bullish reversal in the near term.

Widely-followed analyst Egrag Crypto, for instance, has predicted that XRP could undergo a “1,500% pump” into double-digits in just four weeks. Egrag Crypto based his analysis on the Bull Market Support Band (BMSB) — a moving average support band that indicates whether the market is in a bull market or bear cycle.

He notes that XRP is currently positioned above the BMSB, signaling that the market is currently bullish. This bears similarities to the 2017 fractal when XRP reached the Purple Foundation and almost hit the BMSB, resulting in a spectacular 1,500% rally in the span of four weeks. This upsurge targeted the 1.618 Fibonacci extension level from the cycle low.

According to Egrag Crypto’s accompanying chart, XRP has dropped to the Purple Foundation of the currency cycle and touched the BMSB.